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5 Responses to “The Crucible”

“Man, remember, until an hour before the devil fell, God thought him beautiful in heaven” (Hale)

This quote can go in many different directions; it could go into a religious direction or just somebody’s opinion on what they think. For me it is religious. If you were to not believe in god you would look at this quote as gibberish. You would say “Heaven? God? What is he trying to say that isn’t real.” But the way I look at it is God loves everybody even if they have flaws or did something wrong. He doesn’t judge anybody on the way they look, speak or how many friends they have, or if they are popular. He excepts everyone as a human being and doesn’t look past it. So god is trying to say he once looked at the devil as just one of us and didn’t look at his flaws as being mean and vicious. As soon as the devil dropped down to hell and started doing bad things to people he suddenly realized he Is a bad person and he could not love someone who doesn’t believe in everybody being a good person. All in all God loves everyone for being them but if you go to the dark side that means you do not believe in him, you believe in the devil and you will end up doing devilish things.

When Proctor says, “oh it is a black mischief,” he is referring to black magic. Black magic is always used for negative purposes, never anything beneficial. Proctors talking to Elizabeth and Elizabeth talks about people in court, Abigail, and about people being bewitched. He says how the towns going crazy when he quotes Elizabeth and how something fishy is going through the town. Slowly, witchcraft is taking over the town, therefore, people who are not accused are thinking others that are, are going crazy. Also, Betty and Ruth become possessed because there is no cute according to the doctor, therefore proving that witchcraft is true and how it is affecting everyone in the area.

Have you ever done something out of your own skin where people have remembered you? You’re not just that high school kid, you’re that high school kid who fell down the stairs at school. Or that girl that throw up at the last party all over. Are you actually that person, or are you just that person people remember because you fault in your own self. No one changed but everyone now knows everyone else intimately whether they wanted them to or not. What Proctor seems to be saying is that the witch trials haven’t really changed what people are like inside, “we are what we always were,” but now it’s been exposed through social pressure. What seems to not be a big deal is a huge deal when others are questioning who you could actually be. This quote though is not all about what you’ve done meaning by actions. It points straight to the heart and shoots to who you actually are. We were all here few years ago putting on our best face and all that and not slowing down enough to discover who we actually are. I am still in that stage. Usually, until a bit later in life you get quite a bit older and you realize you are the same little kid who always wanted to fly a plane or be a singer or whatever. We all had a sensitive heart, and now we are reaching and age and are allowed to realize it and accept it and not feel as much need to try to hide it from everyone. You are what you always were, but naked now; not so much trying to cover it up. You were always going to be that person nobody thought you were.

On page 61 Elizabeth says to Proctor, “She thinks to kill me, then to take my place.” This quote portrays a major theme in this book so far. This shows how people will blame others no matter who they are. In this time period, everyone stressed over what others thought about them. This is an example of how a young girl, who did not want the attention on her, blamed and older women for another crime. This is also conveyed in other parts of the book because of the society these people lived in at the time.

One of the most important and influential quotes of the entire book is when Mary Warren states, “We must all love each other now, Goody Proctor”(pg.56). In this quote, there is an important message that Mary is trying to deliver to the public. It is a call for unity in the community. With all the stress of the witch trials in their society, people isolate themselves as a form of self-protection. Instead, they should come together and work as one to solve the current issues. If the townspeople listened to this request for unification, perhaps the debate could be less tense and less harsh.